Dear Editor,
Last week, in a letter in the Galway Independent newspaper, Séan O'Neachtain MEP challenged Sinn Féin's opposition to the controversial Lisbon Treaty by stating that there was no basis for the neutrality argument.

Sinn Féin believes that the Lisbon Treaty is a bad deal for Ireland. It will undermine democracy, neutrality and public services, it promotes nuclear power and a militarised EU and it is bad for the developing world. This treaty is the most significant revision of the structures, procedures and policies of the EU since its foundation. For the first time the union would be given 'legal personality' enabling it to act like a state on the international stage.

With respect to the issues of militarisation and neutrality, it is in Articles 10 through 28 that we see EU advances over foreign, security and defence policies. Article 10 mandates: 'The union's competence in matters of common foreign and security policy shall cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions relating to the union's security.'

Article 28 mandates for the 'progressive framing of a common union defence policy [that] will lead to a common defence'.

It is Article 15 though that worryingly gives the European Council the authority to make foreign and security decisions by qualified majority rather than by unanimity. A blatant reference to the future aspiration of this new European Union is conveyed in Article 28c. This resolution requires all Member States to improve their military capacity while also increasing financial contributions to a military 'start-up fund', with the sole aim of funding the military capabilities of the EU.

Article 28 also reaffirms that 'commitments and co-operation' in the area of common security and defence 'shall be consistent with commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation'. There word neutrality is not even mentioned in the Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty further undermines Irish neutrality while drawing us ever closer into common defence, security and foreign policies. Sean O'Neachtain's reference to the Triple Lock and 1937 Constitution are inaccurate and misleading. These provisions have not prevented Shannon Airport from being used by US troops involved in the war in Iraq; they have no prevented Irish tax payers money being handed over to the European Defence Agency; nor did they prevent Ireland from joining the so called Partnership for Peace and EU Battle groups. In turn ratifying the Lisbon Treaty will further erode Irish neutrality and advance the militarisation of the EU.

I will sum up my argument by a statement made by a vocal supporter of the Lisbon Treaty, the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, at a speech he gave in March 2006:

'We need a European defence, a European army, not just on paper but a force genuinely capable of operating in the field, including beyond the European borders ... The philosophy behind all these proposals - economic, political, military - is always the same… And I am also quite clear that I am advocating a more powerful Europe, also a more closely integrated Europe ... In short I am advocating a United States of Europe.'

Diane Nolan,
Spokesperson, Galway West,
Sinn Féin

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